Zurich - Trip to Glarus and Liechtenstein

Vaduz, Liechtenstein

I did two further trips while Geraldine was visiting. One was to Glarus. This was supposed to be for our birthdays and I’d read that the nearby Sadona Geopark was a world heritage site. Since Geraldine is trying to work through all of these sites (well, I think she mentioned it as something she could maybe do, and I’ve now assumed she is doing it), it seemed like a good birthday plan. It was not the most successful trip.

We boarded the train, Geraldine checked that she had her ticket with her, only to find she hadn’t got it. I checked in my purse, and I also didn’t have mine. We had to leap off the train and we stood on the platform puzzling over how each of us had managed to lose our tickets. It was bizarre. In the end Geraldine found hers in the bin at my place; she’d thrown it away by accident. I think I must have left mine on the train the night before when we bought them. I rather liked the idea that it wasn’t our fault and it was an evil demon or some mysterious force whisking them away from us, but I guess the pedestrian explanations are more likely. Anyway, we had to buy our tickets all over again. Grr. On the plus side, we had time for a coffee and a chocolate croissant at the station, so it wasn’t all bad. And we shared the blame, so it was all very equitable.

I’d read that Expedition Tschinglen was the most popular walk, so that’s what I’d planned we’d do; I hoped that it would be obvious as to how to get to it when we got there, as I couldn’t find any information online. However, we arrived at Glarus only to find that the Tourist Information place didn’t open until 2pm. So, it didn’t matter that we arrived later than planned anyway. None of the maps in the town showed the planned walk.

We walked about a bit aimlessly, although it was picturesque, so no great hardship, had a bit of lunch, and by then it was past 2pm. We went to the Information centre to ask about the walk and it turned out that we had to get a train to somewhere else first. We popped over to the station ticketing booth, but they said the next train to the destination wasn’t for another hour. We deliberated, but felt it was really too late, since we didn’t want to rush the walk or end up lost on the mountains in the dark. We returned to the woman in the information centre and she kindly suggested another walk; this too required a train. Once again, we popped over to the ticket office, but that train too would not be arriving for quite some time. At this point, we didn’t feel we could go back to either the information place or the ticket office again, so we slunk out the side door.

In the end, we did a 15-minute walk (only I think it took us 30 minutes) up a mountain to get to a restaurant where we had some wine. We were able to see snow in the distance. But it was quite a long way to go for the day just to have a glass of wine (or two..).

The final trip was to Liechtenstein. I was a bit luke-warm about this as many people find Vaduz boring, but I’d heard that Feldkirch in Austria wasn’t so far away and was very pretty, so we could do both Liechtenstein and Feldkirch and thus do three countries in one day. That’s pretty cool.

Our travels all went well this time (we were one year older and therefore wiser, perhaps?). To my surprise, the bus to Vaduz, Liechtenstein was also the bus to Feldkirch, Austria so it would be very easy to do both. We awaited eagerly for the announcement on the bus or even by the roadside that we were arriving in Liechtenstein, but it never came. It turned out that once we crossed the Rhine, we were there, but apparently they’d made some agreement years ago not to have borders.

Liechtenstein felt orderly and clean and, to my surprise, its currency was Swiss Francs. The whole country has only 38,000 people, with Vaduz holding just over 5000, so I decided it would be good to live there as it would be relatively easy to be one of the country’s best – for example, I’m pretty sure I could present myself as the country’s foremost expert on Schelling if I lived there.

We ended up spending the whole day there and we never got to Feldkirch. Liechtenstein is dominated by its castle, seated dramatically on the top of a hill among a backdrop of mountains. There was some pretty interesting modern architecture, too. We started off visiting the cathedral. The weather was glorious, so we did a long climb up to the castle, taking in some wonderful views along the way. At one point, we stopped by an interesting fountain representing all the different parts of Liechtenstein through the use of stone and the flow of water. Finally, we arrived at the castle only to find that you can’t actually go in, since it’s the Prince’s residence. But the walk alone was worth it.

All in all, we had a great day, and it leaves me still with Feldkirch on my list of places to go!

Zurich - Flat Viewings

Lounge

As I’ve mentioned before, the rental market in Zurich is completely different from the UK as there’s a shortage of properties and people are competing to get a flat (at least on the lower end of the scale). In the UK, you want to leave your rental property? Well, you hand in your month’s notice and then leave. Easy. In Zurich, you usually have only one or two days a year where you are allowed to leave your flat (end of March and end of September, or maybe end of September only, depending on your rental contract). From my UK perspective, this is madness, since everyone then needs cleaners, removal people, electricians, etc at the same time and they are always fully booked.

It is possible to leave your flat outside of the two dates (and many do), but then you are responsible for finding the next tenant. Well, you have to find three potential tenants and then the rental agent has to decide if they are suitable or not and which one they will take. You are obliged to keep on paying rent until a new tenant moves in.

Anyway, I was planning to leave my flat at the end of September, so I gave my three months’ notice (which you still have to give) and got the letting agency to do all the advertising. In retrospect, it seems almost as easy to leave outside of the two standard dates as in my case it appeared that if you leave at another time, the letting agency simply asks you to pay for the advertising but they still put it up on the website for you. However, at least I knew I wouldn’t have to pay rent beyond September this way.

Two viewing dates were duly organized (I was allowed to choose the date and time, but I had to be there for the viewings). Obviously, I tidied up and cleaned beforehand (always a chore!) and I also got a price list ready of all the furniture I wanted to sell. I asked the agency if they could put in the advertisement that I would give away all the light fittings to the next tenant (this would save me from having to block up all the light fittings only for the new tenant to pay to have them all reinstated), but they refused, since this was basically my property and they weren’t advertising anything that wasn’t theirs. I thought this was a bit crazy as it would surely help rent the flat out more easily, but hey ho.

One evening, a couple came round asking to view the flat outside of the given hours since they were going to be on vacation at the time of the viewing. I let them in, but wasn’t too sure of the rules. The Swiss can be quite strict at times. Moreover, I wasn’t really quite ready as I didn’t have my price list available yet and hadn’t decided what was going and what was staying. After they viewed it, I gave them an application form, they thanked me, and left. I have no idea if they’re allowed to apply before the first official viewing has even taken place.

On the day of the first viewing, five minutes before the allocated time, I opened my door ready for people to come. To my astonishment, there was a queue of people from my door, down the stairs, and out the front door waiting to come in. I told them to come in and within 5 minutes all 20 application forms were already gone.

It was a confusion of people and I was like the light to the moth as people clung to me asking questions – twice I was asked if there was mould (? I think they must have got confused with another property?), could I put a word in for them so that they could get the property, was the flat going to be renovated, could I put in a word for them for the property, was the building going to be torn down soon, what were the neighbours like, could I put a word in for them for the property, how long had I lived there, was there a basement…

One thing I hadn’t thought about doing was finding a secure place for my valuables. With so many people everywhere in my flat, it was impossible for me to keep an eye on everyone; besides, people were grabbing me to ask questions and taking my attention away. And then they wanted to see the basement, but if I showed them the basement, there was nobody at all in my flat and anything could happen. I got quite stressed, but I had to show the rest of the building. Fortunately, people are generally honest in Switzerland, so I didn’t have any bad repercussions, but it was a lesson learned for my next viewing.

One couple explained that they’d already failed to get several properties and they’d tried applying for my apartment before seeing it. Apparently, they were told it wasn’t possible to apply for a flat without seeing it first. They showed me their completed application form and asked if I could put a word in for them. Another girl explained that she was pregnant and getting married soon. She wanted to buy all of my furniture, the flat was just round the corner from her family, so the flat was ideal. Could I please put in a word for her? Another woman said she’d let me stay in the flat until I left (I’d booked an airbnb studio flat for my last week) if I would put in a word for her and let her have it.

It was exhausting. A few days later, the pregnant girl came round with her fiancé asking if her fiancé could see it quickly. Again, I wasn’t sure of the rules (and was not really prepared for it), but I let her in. She asked if I could put a word in for her. Then I bumped into her at the bus stop and she asked again. At this point, I was desperate to get rid of my furniture, so I asked the agency if I really needed a second viewing and could I recommend the pregnant woman since she would take my stuff.

To my surprise, they made a note of this and noted that I must have had quite a lot of people round already (so I assume quite a lot of applications were on their system). However, they said the second viewing still had to take place. Ugh.

The second viewing (two weeks’ later) wasn’t quite so busy, but all application forms were taken. One guy tried to buy my laptop, which wasn’t for sale, and wanted to take the TV with him straight away (which I wasn’t prepared for). One woman came round and passed judgement on each room (“typical Glattbrugg” to my spare room, which I think was not a compliment, and “now this is a pretty room” to my lounge…), another guy wanted me to start up my printer and print him out some application forms.

It was a bit of culture shock and I was glad when it was all over!

Zurich - Swimming Lesson in Basel

Me at Start of Insel-Ligerz Swim (No Basel Photo Available!)

I’m actually already back in Egypt, but I have a backlog of things to talk about and sooner or later I will be in a dry period where I’m struggling to think what to write, so I’ll just pretend I’m still in Switzerland for now.

In addition, I thought I’d take a break from describing all my trips before this becomes a travelogue.

Anyway, as well as doing the lake swims, I’d also taken some swimming lessons. There are two main online swimming schools with different philosophies – Swim Smooth and Total Immersion. I can’t quite remember what got me interested in Total Immersion (TI), despite my initial interest in Swim Smooth. I think maybe I’d seen it mentioned here and there on the internet; I was initially a bit put off because it seemed rather evangelical in its approach.

However, the more I looked into it, the more attractive it sounded. I was drawn to the claim that it focused on efficiency rather than effort and that you shouldn’t practice struggle. I had given up trying to do better at one point simply because I found I wasn’t enjoying swimming once I pushed myself all the time to go faster; in retrospect, it seemed more sensible to focus on efficiency and streamlining rather than to thrash my arms about more quickly. Also, the videos made the TI swimming style for freestyle look very elegant and effortless; as time went on, I decided I wanted to look good while I swam as well rather than it being obvious when you see me that I'm struggling.

After a lot of time thinking about it and watching videos on YouTube, I finally bought the TI book and accompanying videos online. I got so far with the videos and managed to decrease the number of strokes I needed for each length and finally managed to establish a bit of a glide. However, I was still slow, and I couldn’t get the recovery arm right (ie, the arm's position when it is out of the water); this wasn’t helped by the fact that I can’t see what my recovery arm is doing (because my head is down in the water and my arm is up in the air). I posted a video of my swimming (from my May trip to Egypt) on the TI facebook page and got some helpful feedback from coaches all telling me to improve my recovery. I tried my best, but my speed got slower and slower the more and more I tried. It was dispiriting.

I finally decided to take a lesson and decided it should be with someone qualified to teach TI. There’s only one person in Switzerland, and she is based in Basel. Eventually, we agreed on a date and she sent me directions to the pool where we would meet. I was a bit dismayed when I saw that the bus didn’t stop just outside; that spells trouble.

Anyway, I managed to walk in the wrong direction when I got off the bus (it was confusing because the map seemed to indicate I should go one way and a street sign indicated another way). It was a very hot day, and after a while of wandering and wondering, I needed to phone the coach to say I was on my way but lost.

However, I wasn’t too sure of her phone number and needed to check emails and websites to see if I could find out what it was. I couldn’t read the phone in the bright sunshine so I had to find a bit of shade. I stood by a car to try and look at my phone, but a man asked me what I was doing because I was on his property. Whoops. I asked for directions to the pool, he helped me, and I went on my way and had to wait until I could find another bit of shade before I could phone. By this time, I was already quite late. Stress!

When I finally found her number and called, she didn’t seem to understand how I could have possibly got lost. She said she’d wait for me at the entrance. When I got there, I looked around, and decided she must be inside the entrance. I wanted to pay for my ticket using my debit card, but for some reason it wouldn’t work. I got a bit flustered and starting digging around for some spare cash at which point the woman standing behind the cashier asked me if I was Fiona. It turned out to be my coach. So, there I was caught in the act of abject failure yet again!

My coach showed me the way to the changing rooms and I proudly showed her my padlock that I could use on the lockers, but when I came to use it, it was too thick to go through the hole for the lock. It wasn’t my day. She directed me to the lockers by the cashier's desk to store my valuables, but they required 1 CHF and for some reason I had only 1 EUR. Fortunately, my coach was able to persuade the person at the front desk to trade it for me. I felt I was being a nuisance. Then, while changing, I asked how to get to the toilets (first door on the right – how hard can that be?), but I ended up in the showers instead. I hope my coach didn’t see me. I must have looked like a complete idiot.

The lesson itself was good, although I think I didn’t really give the responses she was expecting ("can you feel your leg moving down? no? well it is is! Try again"). She videoed me before my swim and then we focused on the two-beat kick. I knew my kicking was bad as I can never be bothered with it. I don’t know why I didn’t try to learn the kick before; I think it just looked too daunting as you have to time it properly with the correct arm, so it was good to have someone to teach it to me. I was also surprised to learn that I was over-rotating (having previously not rotated at all). 

TI has a philosophy of hands-on help, so at one point, my coach grabbed my legs and moved them how they were supposed to go - it felt really bizarre, but after a number of repeats and further explanations I could sort of see what she was trying to get at. It just didn't come naturally to me, so it was all a bit of an eye opener.

I’ll write more later on my progress, but despite looking like a complete idiot, I did find that having a teacher is invaluable.

Zurich - Trip to Appenzell

Appenzell - Main Street

Another day was taken up visiting Appenzell, often called Heidiland by the tourist industry. It was quite an expensive train fare (if you don’t have half tax, the card that gets you half-price rail fares for a year).

I didn’t know much about Appenzell before I went other than it had a pedestrian centre and the houses were all traditional Swiss chalets. On arrival, it already felt quite rural because we had to cross the rail tracks, whereas before we’d seen and talked about all the signs you usually see warning you always to use the underpass and not to cross the tracks.

Our journey, and around Appenzell itself, was very pretty with scenery replete with rolling hills that looked so green and smooth in the autumn light that they could have been fake. Given that it had been stressed to me that Appenzell was pedestrian, there were more cars than I was expecting. Although the main street was indeed closed to vehicles, traffic flowed either side of it, so it didn’t seem any less open to traffic than many other towns.

Nevertheless, the town centre was worth seeing. The chalet-type buildings for the shops were huge. We looked round the church and from there saw a little picnic table and chairs by the river, which seemed like a nice spot to have lunch if you had something with you. But, as we gazed out, the chair reared up on its back two legs and spurted water into the river from the front two! Just as well we didn’t sit ourselves down there. This repeated every ten minutes or so – it was equally fun to watch other tourists gasping when they saw it for the first time. Appenzell also had something that looked like the top of a pothole where you could stand and it would turn round very slowly so that you could eventually get a 360 degree view. It was in the middle of the road and not in the pedestrianised bit, so it felt a bit risky!

We stopped for a bite to eat and found a bakery selling yesterday’s “fresh” cakes for half price. I can’t resist a bargain (or a cake, come to that). So, we sat outside to look at the menu. The waitress came up and asked if we were ready to order, so I asked if it was possible to reserve two cakes before they sold. However, I wasn’t entirely sure she’d understood, as she asked us to order. We ordered, and I said again that I’d like a cake. She didn’t ask me what cake I wanted, so I explained again that we wanted one of the half-price ones. She gave me a quizzical look and said “cake is very important to you, isn’t it?”

We laughed and by this time I was too embarrassed to ask again about reserving a cake, but fortunately she volunteered the idea that we look at them and set aside the ones we wanted. When it came to the time to have the cakes, she brought them with a big flourish of “Ta da! Here are the cakes!”

Meanwhile, a man walked past with a monster dog, causing many people to stop and chat to him. I’ve seen a few people recently with remarkable dogs and they always get accosted by onlookers. If you want to gain attention, it’s a good method. It must be difficult for the owners to ever get anywhere, though. It’s like in Egypt, only in Egypt, you don’t need a dog; you just can’t go anywhere for people asking you to come in for a cup of tea.

After our cakes, we went for a walk along the river that had been recommended by Tourist Information. It started off badly as we had the map upside down and so we walked in the wrong direction and up towards a busy road. Eventually, we managed to get on the path, but we decided to deviate as the scenery looked more interesting up the hill. There was the occasional chalet dotted about here and there and we stopped for some time to watch the red squirrels (only they looked black) playing in the trees. As we progressed, we weren’t too sure where we were, so we strode across a field where we could see the railway line and then the town on the other side. On arriving at the other side, we were confronted by a notice to the entrance of the field saying “no entry”. Whoops.

After that, we walked a little way up the other side of the river, visited the small chapel, and then ate in Appenzell in a bar/restaurant in a small, leafy courtyard. And we got home with no further incident.